An afternoon in May-11

About this work

An “Afternoon in May” is a series of 13 still lifes focusing on a simple cup of coffee. At the heart of this series is Scheurweghs personal collection of found footage of family and friends gatherings. The backgrounds in the pictures, such as the table with coffee and cakes, are never of any importance to the photographer or the portrayed. In “An Afternoon in May” Julie Scheurweghs shifts the focus on these backdrops of warmth; showing the beauty in these ‘accidental still lifes’ which tends to go unnoticed. By hiding the faces of the people – unfamiliar to the spectator – Scheurweghs is able to evoke a universality that triggers memories in all of us. The work does not revolve around coffee, but deals with the intimacy of family life. The beauty is not so much in the images themselves, but in the memories these images evoke.